| Summary: | 碩士 === 中山醫學大學 === 生物醫學科學學系碩士班 === 100 === Angiostrongylus cantonensis (A. Cantonensis) is the most common cause of eosinophilic meningitis or eosinophilic meningoencephalitis in Taiwan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Basin. Humans may become infected after ingestion of the infected worms in raw snails and contaminated vegetables. The diagnosis of eosinophilic meningitis result from A. Cantonensis is difficult and invasive such as lumber puncture. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the longitudinal effects of rabbit brain infected with 700 larvae of A. cantonensis by advanced MRI techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and the results were verified by histopathological study.
Each of five New Zealand white rabbits was infected by the 700 3rd-stage larvae of A. Cantonensis. MR scans were performed before and each week after infection of A. Cantonensis by using a 1.5T system. T2WI, FLAIR, R2 mapping and DTI was performed. The ventricle size, signal intensity (SI) of CSF, the fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD) values of the olfactory bulb, corpus callosum, hippocampus and cortex were collection. The data were analyzed by Mathematica, Matlab, Image J and DSI studio.
Our MRI results showed the ventricle size, signal intensity of CSF and the FA, MD, RD values of the hippocampus of each infected rabbit gradually change over time. These image findings were correlation with histopathological study. It may due to the hydrocephalus, CSF hemorrhage and inflammatory process over the hippocampus in the infected rabbit brain. Therefore, MRI was suggested to be a non-invasive technique in detecting eosinophilic meningitis resulted from A. Cantonensis. In the future, the non-invasive MRI platform developed in rabbits can be extended for diagnosis and treatment in eosinophilic meningitis or eosinophilic meningoencephalitis.
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